Cecile Poignant is a Future Trends “Guru” working across industries for several decades. She started her career when trend forecasting was still a very obscure role, unknown to most people.

Cecile and I discuss how we think Trend Forecasting is changing… and MUST change. The cycle of trends is out of step with the stewardship of a healthy planet and urgent detoxification of the fashion industry.

What is our role as forecasters? What does the designer of the future look like? And which mindset change is needed? Design is about questioning. Find out more as we navigate some fundamental issues and solutions.

If I had been told in 1999 when I graduated from design school in Paris that 20 years later I would be a futurist, public speaker, writer and teacher, I never would have believed it. All I wanted was to be a fashion designer. But on the sinuous road of life, one opportunity led to another and today I am regularly asked: “how can I become a forecaster?”. I don’t have a straight forward answer for this. But it was my passion for research that helped evolve my career from designer to futurist.

This is a very personal mini-series about my path and it starts with talking about the importance of research in my life and why I teach what I know now.